


Danganstuck

by immoralArtisan



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Homestuck
Genre: Danganstuck, Despair, Gen, Humanstuck, Murder, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-01-15 14:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1308565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/immoralArtisan/pseuds/immoralArtisan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Egbert, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider and Jade Harley are enrolled into the prestigious Hope's Peak Private Academy but before they know it they become some of the newest victims of Monobear's cruelty.<br/>Who will survive? Who will be punished? And who is the mastermind behind it all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy

John Egbert stands and gazes up at Hope’s Peak Academy: his future.

The bright morning sun shines down from a pale blue sky, a cool breeze whistles through the trees and the buildings and birds chirp between the sounds of the cars passing by. The air glows with golden promise.

He had worked long and hard for this day, using his extensive knowledge of card tricks, disguises and intricate plans of mass humiliation to achieve the title of Ultimate Prankster Student. Hope’s Peak Academy won’t know what hit ‘em.

It’s an enormous building with towers covered in glass windows rising up to the sky in spikes. The largest section rises up in the centre, even higher than the towers, and the high school’s crest is planted at the top in a stamp of glimmering metal which has to be at least one storey tall. The crest is a shield with a fountain pen and lightning bolt crossed over it with a crown on top and wings sprouting out of either side. If those aren’t good omens, then he doesn’t know what are.

John feels his chest swell with pride and grabs the handle of his suitcase. It’s gonna be a good three years, he can just feel it.

And at that, he steps over the gate’s threshold…

***

The first thing he notices is the smell. Disinfectant.

He opens his heavy eyelids slowly.

_Where am I?_

He sits bolt upright and immediately regrets it as pain fires through his temples. He gasps and clutches his head. _Okay, no more sudden movements._

He looks around and finds himself in a dim classroom. The air is stuffy and dry in his throat. The blackboard in front of him is blank, the teacher’s desk is empty, every desk is empty and there is not a soul in sight. Strangely, the windows along one side of the room have been shut out by metal plates…maybe they’re having construction work or something. The only light in the room comes from an open doorway which looks into a corridor.

Did he fucking pass out? On his first day? He doesn’t remember having this headache before. In fact he felt pretty good. Maybe he was brought here by a staff member or pupil. Surely he’d be brought to the infirmary not here if someone did move him.

He nearly burst out into laughter. Oh god, he was so _stupid!_ This is so obviously the beginnings of an elaborate ruse! It’s like the first step to a large scale prank, you bring the target into an odd setting to make them uncomfortable before you really start to fuck with them. The conspirator of this one must be very dedicated considering that fact that they must have knocked him out or drugged him. To be fair, with the title of Ultimate Prankster, he is kind of asking for it.

To fool a master, well, that definitely takes a load of talent.

But you’ll need more talent to fool this master. He’s just seen through your ruse by realising that there is a ruse in the first place!Rookie mistake.

He stands up, still smirking at this realisation, when he notices an out-of-place leaflet on one of the desks. It has a cheesy photo of a teacher and a student arm in arm, smiling happily on the front with “Hope’s Peak Academy and You” over their heads. It appears to be about mental health and the school’s counselling programme. He opens it. Or at least it used to be before it was defaced with multi-coloured crayon, saying: “CONGRATULATIONS ON ENROLLING. A NEW TERM HAS BEGUN. A FRESH START. THIS SCHOOL WILL BECOME THE WORLD YOU GUYS LIVE IN. THE ENTRANCE CEREMONY STARTS AT 8 O’CLOCK. ASSEMBLE IN THE GYM.”

He stares at it and then looks around the room. What kind of place has he gotten himself into? Is this part of the prank or is this serious? The idea of the entrance ceremony starting at 8 and taking place in the gym sounds pretty legit. Maybe he did pass out and the person who bought him in wrote this to help him out…

He walks out into the bright, florescent-lit corridor and looks down at his watch. 8:00. He should get moving.

He walks briskly down a bunch of identical deserted corridors, each footstep echoing through the silence. _Where is everybody?_ He eventually reaches a set of double doors and hears the murmur of voices on the other side of them. _I hope it hasn’t already started,_ he thinks before slowly opening the door. The hinges creak loudly and he curses under his breath as he notices that the murmuring has stopped.

Sure enough, there’s the gymnasium on the other side along with a bunch of fellow students who all stare at him as he opens the door. There aren’t a lot, he can only see about 14 people and there’s no one on the stage. It must be running late.

“Uh…hi,” he says sheepishly and shuts the door behind him. Everyone mumbles a noncommittal greeting before turning back to each other.

“As I was saying,” shouted a scratchy commanding voice from the centre of the room, “we need to find out what the fuck is going on here.”

John walks toward the group of students which had accumulated in the centre of the room. The source of the voice was a short, stocky kid wearing a sweater and looking furious.

“Wow, what an innovative idea, small fry,” sneers a girl with round glasses which has one of the lenses blacked out on the other side of the room, “please continue to enlighten us with your wisdom.”

A girl in red glasses giggles as “small fry” scowls at her.

She waves a hand, dismissively. “Anyway, this is probably just some kind of special initiation. No need to get your frilly panties in a twist.”

“Whether or not it’s some kind of initiation-whatever, it’s still fucked!”

“She’s right. Chill out, dude,” says a guy in sunglasses to John’s right, “let’s just wait for the principle.”

“We have been to no avail,” says a girl with short blonde hair.

John raises his voice, “Maybe he’s late or something.”

They all eye him, as if having forgotten that he was there.

“Apologies, I forgot to ask,” says the blonde girl, “but how did you find yourself here?”

John shifts uncomfortably under everyone’s gaze. “Well, I applied to this school and went into a competition against other um-“

The girl with blacked-out glasses smirks.

“We mean, like, how did you get _here_?” corrects another girl with round glasses looking embarrassed, “Like,” she gestures around her, “ _here_.”

“Oh! I was outside the school and then…” he trailed off realising how ridiculous he will sound.

“And then you woke up in a classroom after being knocked unconscious?” she completes.

John’s eyes widens. “How did you know?”

“The same thing happened to all of us,” says a tall lanky boy with 3D glasses and a slight lisp.

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

“We aren’t,” she says, “it’s true.”

The room goes quiet. John scans all their faces, waiting for a suppressed giggle or a barely concealed smile to give it all away but none arrive. Everyone just looks a little nervous and confused. Maybe it’s for real.

A bubbly-looking girl finally breaks the silence. “How about we all introduce ourselves?”

“And why would we want to do that?” says a guy with ridiculous dyed hair.

She gives him a stern look which would look more threatening on a puppy.

The guy groans and turns to everyone else. “Eridan Ampora: Ultimate Scion Student,” he mutters reluctantly.

They all then start sounding off their names and titles.

“I’m Feferi Peixes: Ultimate Swimmer Student,” chirps the bubbly girl.

“Jade Harley: Ultimate Marksman Student,” says the girl with round glasses.

“Karkat Vantas: Ultimate Soldier Student,” barks the shouty dude.

“Kanaya Maryam: Ultimate Fashion Designer Student.”

“Dave Strider: DJ,” the guy with sunglasses says simply.

“Rose Lalonde: Ultimate Psychologist Student,” says the blonde girl.

“Sollux Captor: Ultimate Programmer Student,” says the guy with the lisp.

“Terezi Pyrope: Ultimate Justice Student,” says the girl is red glasses, grinning.

“Nepeta Leijion: Ultimate Hunter Student.”

“Equius Zahhak: Ultimate Robotic Engineer Student.”

“Gamzee Makara: Ultimate Clown,” drawls a tall guy who has such an unruly cloud of curly hair that you can only really make out his broad grinning mouth. He roughly nudges the skinny boy with a mohawk beside him who quickly stutters: “T-Tavros Nitram: Ultimate Animal Trainer Student.”

“Vriska Serket: Ultimate Lucky Student,” says the girl with blacked out glasses.

Kanaya looks at her quizzically, “How does one compete with others in the field of luck?” she asks coolly.

Vriska suddenly grins. “Like this,” she whips off her glasses to reveal that behind the blacked-out lens is a scarred hollow where an eye should be.

Karkat fakes gagging.

She smirks and puts the glasses back on. “Very funny, small fry.”

“How does that make you lucky?”

She turns to glare at Eridan. “Because I survived to tell the tale, dickmongrel!” she snarls.

Suddenly a deafening microphone howl screeches through the room. The sound rings straight through John’s temples.

“Testing testing 1-2-3,” says a nasally piercing voice through the loud speakers. “Good morning, freshmen, and welcome to Hope’s Peak Academy. Let us begin the entrance ceremony.”

And at that moment a bear jumps out from behind the podium and stands on top of it.

Everyone stares speechless.

“What the fuck is this place?” mutters Dave.

The bear is split down the middle, being half white and half black. The eye on the white side is just a button but the eye on the black is a long red gash in the fabric. Similarly the side of the mouth on the white side is simply smiling but the side of the mouth on the black is curved up in a strange grin.

“Woah,” Gamzee stares wide-eyed at it and prods Tavros, “bro, did a fuckin teddy-bear all up and stand on the podium?”

“Yeah...l-looks like it,”

His big mouth hangs open like he just met Jesus. “Motherfuck.”

“How did the stuffed-animal move just now?” exclaims John.

“It’s so cuuute!” Nepeta squeaks.

“I’m not a stuffed-animal,” says the nasally piercing voice from before, coming from the bear, “I am Monobear, the principle of this school.”

“It’s an animatronic,” Equius explains to John, “it would be fairly easy to dismantle and-“

“No, I am Monobear,” it says forcefully, waving its stubby arms, “and there will be no dismantling thank-you very much. Violence against the principle is against the rules.”

“So cuuuuute!” cries Nepeta again.

“Enough!” Monobear shouts, “Listen up, you bastards! This is the opening ceremony and I am the principle so you will listen to me!” The bear regains its composure. “Ahem. Welcome to Hope’s Peak Private Academy, freshmen, and good morning to you all. You are all promising, young high school students who carry the hopes of the world on your shoulders. And in order to protect and care for you wonderful symbols of hope I have decided to let you all live together within the confines of this school…permanently.”

Vriska flinched. “Wait, what?”

“You heard me right!” says Monobear gleefully, jumping up and down, “You’ll be staying here the rest of your lives!”

“What on earth…?” John gasps. _It can’t be true_.

“You can’t be serious!” cries Karkat in disbelief. “The rest of our lives..?”

“That’s impossible,” says Rose simply, shaking her head.

“Oh, it’s entirely possible, young lady,” it says waving a stumpy arm in her direction, “we’ve got a very big budget, you see. You won’t be inconvenienced in any way.”

“Other than being stuck here forever?!” shouts Vriska, fists clenched.

“Well,” Monobear paused, “there is _one_ way out. One single escape.”

Everyone goes still. The silence seems to last forever. John can feel his heart beat in his ears. The stuffy air. The burning smell of disinfectant. His hands sweat. His stomach churns. His eyes dart around the gym before finally resting on Monobear’s red eye.

“And that is to kill another student.”

“No.” he whispers. _This has to be a joke. This has to be a joke._

“W-we have to…?” Tavros’ stuttering voice trails off, shakily.

Dave trembles beside John. “Kill…”

“Upupupupupu,” the teddy-bear giggles, happily. “Yes. You have to kill someone else in order to earn your freedom. You could bludgeon them to death, stab them, drown them. The possibilities are endless, friends.”

“Why?!” Jade screams, tears filling her eyes, “Why are you doing this?”

Monobear regards her, “Why? Because it’s so much fun! The despair. It’s delectable.” It waves a paw at her dismissively, “You wouldn’t understand. The youth of today, they underappreciate so much.”

“This is real?” John looks desperately around at everyone, looking for the cracks in the façade. They all look back, listlessly, terrified. “This can’t be real.”

“Oh yes, it’s real alright.” Monobear says slowly. “This is your life now. This is your reality.” It bursts out into laughter. “Adios, amigos!” It says waving a paw and jumping back down behind the podium.

“It’s real.” John repeats slowly.

The students all look from one person to the next in silence. Some of them are already crying, some of them are staring in speechless rage, most are just silent and still.

Tavros then says without a single stutter or tremor: “We’re as good as dead.”

 


	2. Studies in Adjustment

_“Good morning, you bastards. It’s 8am. Daytime begins now.”_

Rose watches the backs of her eyelids glow as the bedroom light gets turned on.

 _So when it’s daytime all lights that were off get turned on?_ She thinks absently. _Okay._

She remembers her bedroom at home fondly. The white carpets and walls, purple bedsheets, the smell of books, the bright expansive windows. She even misses the slight tingling smell of tequila at this point which would waft in through the door from the hall.

She reluctantly opens her eyes.

Here the air’s stagnant. There’s a security camera on the opposite wall. The windows are blocked up with thick metal plates. Her new bedroom walls are a dull colour of purple which is somewhat comforting though not very.

 _Day 2 and I already miss natural light._ She sighs sadly and pushes back the covers, realising that she went to bed in yesterday’s clothes.

Her memories of the day before are a little hazy from the shock of it all but there are several things that she is sure of: she’s locked in a cage with no door, the cage is run by an animatronic teddy-bear and, in order to leave, you have to kill. She has considered the possibility of this all being a delusion but she doubts her own mind to be capable of creating such a twisted scenario. Though she wouldn’t be too surprised. It would be more likely after all.

She gets up and finds a notice, if you could even call it that, on the bathroom door. It’s written in multi-coloured crayon. It says: “A FEW POINTS OF INTEREST ABOUT THE DORMITORIES: 1. WATER GETS TURNED OFF AT NIGHTTIME. 2. THERE ARE ONLY LOCKS ON THE BATHROOM DOORS OF GIRLS’ DORMITORIES. 3. DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE DAGGER PROVIDED ON TOP OF THE DRESSER. HAPPY HUNTI-“

She tears the paper down the middle before tossing both pieces into a nearby rubbish bin.

At least that damned bear let them keep their luggage. It’s important to look on the brightside.

She forces herself to have a shower and get changed even though all she wants to do is crawl back into bed and stay there. She walks toward the door but the katana on top of the dresser catches her eye.

It’s dangerously beautiful in the way that only the deadliest of weapons are. She removes it from its stand. The sheath is thickly decorated with gold flowers and leaves in front of shining red leather and the handle is solid gold with black thread wrapped around it for grip. She unsheathes it slowly and examines the cold glimmering steel blade. She stares at it, letting the blade rest against the flesh of her soft finger tips.

“What if…?” she whispers. _I could leave this place if I just..._

She looks to the camera which was pointed expectantly at her. Disgusted, she sheaths the blade and puts it back on the stand.

No. She won’t give him the satisfaction.

She flicks off the camera before walking out the door, locking it behind her.

She heads for the cafeteria.

Yesterday everyone explored the premises, searching in vain for some kind of way out even though they knew that it was hopeless. Rose hardly paid any attention whatsoever and she doubted anyone else did either. They all just wandered aimlessly. The only thing that Rose did pay attention to was a stairwell which was blocked off by metal bars, trapping them on the ground floor. No doubt it led to the rest of the school.

She regrets her lack of interest a little now as she has no idea what’s where so she is therefore forced to use the horrendous hand-held device which every student was given. She reluctantly follows the map application.

“Rose Lalonde, correct?” says a cool female voice from behind her.

 _I remember that voice._ “Correct,” Rose replies, still walking, “though you may want to reconsider sneaking up on people from behind to greet them especially given the circumstances.”

There is a short pause. “I will remember that,” there are a few quick footsteps and Kanaya appears at her side.

“Kanaya Maria, right?”

She smiles. “Maryam.”

They walk in silence for a few moments.

“What are your thoughts on this?” asks Kanaya, “On the aforementioned ‘circumstances’?”

“I don’t have any,” admits Rose, “we’re trapped, we may well have to fight for our survival and that is all there is to think.” She glances at her. She looks troubled, her eyebrows raised up to each other above emerald green eyes. “What about you?”

She looks ahead of her as she walks. “Needless to say, I do not wish pain upon anyone. However I worry others will. Maybe some already do, considering what there is to gain.”

Rose remembers the dagger in her room and is filled with disgust of herself.

They turn into the cafeteria. Only a handful of people have showed up for breakfast so far, the rest of them are probably still getting up or sleeping in. Now that they no longer have lessons there’s no longer a point to keeping to a routine.

“I’m going to make some tea,” says Rose, nodding toward the kitchen, “do you want some?”

“Yes, that would be most adequate.”

Rose smiles. _Adequate._ “Okay.”

She walks over to the kitchen and starts boiling some water as Kanaya joins Karkat, Tavros and John at one of the tables. Karkat looks alert and pissed off, which Kanaya is beginning to suspect is a permanent state of being for him, whilst John and Tavros just look tired.

“Good morning,” she says, sitting down.

They all reply with similar sentiments.

“How’d you sleep?” asks John.

“Well though rather fitfully.”

“Same.”

“I hardly slept at all, this is all so…t-terrifying.” says Tavros sadly and John puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“We need to make to make some kind of rule,” drawls Karkat, “so that we don’t all end up flipping out all night.”

“Students can implement rules?”

“Not official ones, no,” says John quickly, “but we think it could still help out.”

“Surely that would not help as those planning to kill would not pay attention to an unofficial rule.”

“Got any better ideas, Maryam?” barks Karkat.

“Well, no-“

“Exactly.” Karkat sighs in frustration. “God, this is such bullshit.”

Rose sits down with a tray carrying two mugs of tea and a bowl of cereal. She hands Kanaya a mug, who thanks her meekly, and sits down. Even just the process of making it was comfortingly familiar. It almost gave her hope before she realised how ludicrous it was for it to do so.

“We need to have a meeting of some sort,” states Rose, matter-of-factly before blowing on her steaming mug of tea, “we can’t just mind our own business and hope nothing bad is going to happen.”

“We were just talking about getting everyone to agree to not leave their own rooms at night,” says John, hopefully, “we could always suggest that.”

“I doubt that would stop anyone with immoral intentions…”

Kanaya looks at Karkat pointedly.

Rose takes a sip thoughtfully. “Although it may at least give people peace of mind.”

Karkat rolls his eyes, gesturing at Kanaya. “ _Thank-_ you,”

Rose’s mind lingers on the dagger once more…

“You okay?”

 _Huh?_ Rose snaps back to reality to see John looking at her. She smiles. “As good as can be expected.”

***

The next few days go by uneventfully.

They decide to have a meeting every morning at breakfast and give out chores which can be swapped every week. They put all the daggers that were in the bedrooms into a cupboard in the kitchen and arrange for it, and the other kitchen utensils, to be manned between meals. Though it is a boring job, it is swapped between people fairly frequently so it isn’t too mind-numbing. The chores, though boring, give structure to everyone’s days and keep their minds occupied at least for a little while.

As people begin to get adjusted, personalities reveal themselves and relationships and alliances emerge. The tense atmosphere begins to soften into an unstable form of harmony which is…progress, Rose supposes. More and more frequently they forget about the cameras, the metal plates and bars but thoughts of home continue to plague them as do thoughts of the outside world.

Every so often Rose wonders what her mother is doing. She knows that she’s probably just stumbling around the house, drinking; a pastime which Rose despised. But now, knowing that she will probably never leave this place outside of a body-bag, she remembers those times fondly.

“I even miss the smell of alcohol at this point,” Rose confides in Kanaya who is hunched over her sewing machine. Rose gave up trying to assist a while ago and is sitting on her bed.

Kanaya had somehow managed to fit a sewing machine into her suitcase before coming here. She had brought it because she was wanting to continue with her various design projects between classes but now, as she can no longer go out and buy cloth, her resources are limited. At the moment, she is just replacing a broken zip on the back of one of her dresses.

“I have never been very partial to it myself,” she replies, “I believe it to be of an acquired taste.”

“Me neither.” Rose slumps back onto the bed and stares at the ceiling. “…Tell me about your family.”

“I had a similar situation to yourself.” Rose can hear a smile on her voice. “I also lived with my mother, far away from any city or village.”

She picked up on the past tense. “’Had’?”

Kanaya paused briefly. “My mother passed away a few years ago.”

Rose fell silent. “I’m sorry for mentioning…”

“It is quite alright. It was a long time ago.”

Rose sits up and looks at her. Kanaya still has her back to her, her busy hands adjusting the angle of the fabric under the needle, the crown of her short, curled, dark hair illuminated by a lamp on the desk. As she watches her work away she is filled with gratitude for her company.

Suddenly the TV lights up with Monobear on the screen, sitting in a desk chair. _“Attention, students!”_

Both girls start at the sound of that infuriating voice. They only ever get announcements from him at 7 in the morning and 10 in the evening. What could he possibly want from them at 7 in the evening? They turn to the TV.

 _“It would appear that there has not yet been a murder yet.”_ he says sadly, shaking his big head. _“How boring. I didn’t put you in here for nothing, y’know!”_

“Fuck you,” mutters Kanaya under her breath.

 _“But then in hit me, the reason why you guys haven’t done it yet:”_ Monobear leans in to the camera, dramatically, “ _motivation. You lack motivation to leave! That explains everything. So in order to take care of that, head to the computer suite immediately or suffer the consequences. See ya soon!”_ The screen goes blank.

“That doesn’t sound good.” says Rose.

Kanaya doesn’t say anything in response and they both leave for the computer suite in silence.

After a few minutes of waiting everyone has arrived and Monobear flashes up on a big screen on the front wall of the room.

“Upupupupupu,” Monobear giggles happily, “Please sit in your assigned seats. This is going to be _fun._ ”

That final word sends a shiver down Rose’s spine.

At that moment, fifteen computer screens in the room light up each with the name of a different student. Everyone sits down at their assigned seats and for a brief moment it almost feels like an actual lesson.

Monobear is now practically jumping up and down in his deckchair. _“Now, put on the headphones and click on the screen.”_

Rose hesitantly puts the headphones on and clicks the mouse. Her name disappears and suddenly is replaced with her mother sitting in their living room. Rose freezes in her chair.

_What is this?_

_“Aw, Rosie. I’m so proud that you got into Hope’s Peak,”_ she says grinning, only managing to slur a little.

 _She must’ve only been on her first drink when this was recorded_ , Rose thinks fondly and can’t help but smile a little.

 _“I mean, it’s so crazy. I’ve never known anyone who got in and I know…”_ She paused to think, “ _like ALOT of people.”_ She grins again. _“Anyways, congrats ‘n’ all that jazz. Good-bye til Christmas!”_

The recording cuts out to static for a second before another video is played. Now the living room looks to have been ransacked with sofa cushions and books strewn everywhere. And…and….

_Is that...?_

Rose’s hand flies to her mouth in horror.

Blood covers the kitchen counter behind the sofa. Shards of glass and remnants of smashed martini glasses coat every surface. The light flickers. And, oh god no, is that a hand on the floor poking out from behind the counter?

_Please no. No no no._

The screen goes blank.

Monobear says something. Rose doesn’t hear him. When he stops talking and the projector goes off, Rose gets out of her chair. She starts walking toward the kitchen. Her footsteps echo off the ceiling and the floor. She grabs a bottle out of the fridge. She starts walking toward her bedroom. She’s not entirely sure why she does this. She’s not entirely sure of anything. She is vaguely aware of bumping into somebody. Doesn’t care who it is. Just continues walking. Walking. Walking. Opens the door. Walks in. Closes it behind her. Crawls into bed. Pulls up the covers.

_Fading._

_fading_

 

She will later realise that she grabbed a bottle of grape juice out of the fridge and she will find it funny in a way she knows she shouldn’t.


	3. Lessons in Loss

_“Bim bam bim bom! A body has been discovered. There will be a class trial after a short period for investigations. Good luck!”_

Thud thud thud. “Dave! There is a murder afoot!”

Dave buries his face even further into his pillow.

Terezi bangs on his door again. “Open the door!” she yells.

“No fucking way!” he shouts back into his pillowcase.

“Daaaaaaaave, this is serious!”

“Uuugggggggghhh,” Dave groans whilst dragging himself out of bed, blanket still on his shoulders. Reflexively he gropes the bedside table for his spiked sunglasses but they’re not there. He rubs his bleary eyes and glances around. They lie cracked on the floor.

He blinks. _Oh yeah…forgot about that._ He doesn’t want to think about it. He drags himself to the door, avoiding the sunglasses, opens it and says “sup.”

Terezi looks oddly sombre today, already dressed in her scruffy, ripped jeans, converses and a neon t-shirt.

“Tavros has been murdered.”

“Wait, what?”

“Tavros has been murdered.” Terezi repeats, expression unreadable. “And we’re going to find out who’s responsible.”

Dave blinked a few times. “It’s 7am.”

“So?”

He raised an eyebrow before promptly turning back into his room, pulling the door after him. Terezi jams her walking cane in the door.

“You think I’m joking? You couldn’t have missed the announcement.”

“No, I think it’s too early for this shit.”

Terezi pauses. Dave can see her big blank eyes shift a little behind her red glasses. “Someone is dead. You do realise that?”

She’s usually always grinning but now she looks so stern. It’s freaking him out a little.

His stomach rolls. He really doesn’t want to go. He says nothing.

“Dave?” Terezi raises her eyebrows and smirks a little. “You coming or what?”

Dave sighs, rubbing an eye wearily. “Gimme a sec,” he mumbles and closes the door.

He hadn’t spoken a lot with Tavros but from what he heard from John about him he was a good guy. He feels a little bad for not caring more. He hopes John isn’t taking it too hard.

He starts rummaging through his suitcase which he still hadn’t unpacked. He throws on some jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie.

He considers brushing his teeth but as Terezi’s knocking on the door becomes more frequent and impatient he decides to go with “the lazy-as-balls option”, that being just swallowing some toothpaste. Minty-freshness with no brushing involved.

None will be the wiser.

He does this and splutters. Eating toothpaste is never the most pleasant of the two options. The lengths he has to go to for on-demand minty-freshness are fucking ridiculous. He wonders if someone out there has made a machine for this shit. Probably.

He goes out into the corridor and follows Terezi’s lead. He’s surprised at how quickly she’s memorised the layout of the building despite being blind. It must be a skill created out of necessity.

“Where are we going?” he asks.

Her walking cane scans the ground in front of her as she strolls. “Nepeta’s room. That’s where the body is.”

_Nepeta?!_ Dave had spoken a few times with that one. They had conversations about their various tamagotchis. She seemed particularly fond of one which he had named after Jack Nicholson. “Shit…you don’t think she did it do you?”

She shrugged. “I dunno. Haven’t seen the crime-scene yet, have I?”

“Seen?”

“Yup.” She grinned.

“…You have to be more specific.”

“You’re gonna describe the crime-scene to me.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“And I have no choice in this whatsoever.”

“No.”

“Ugh,” Dave states. He’s sure that he could come up with a more noteworthy phrase to describe his unenthusiasm for seeing a corpse if he weren’t so tired from all the not-sleeping he’s doing right now. But as it is, “ugh” will just have to do. “You know that announcement? Did it actually say that there would be a class trial or was I dreaming?”

“It actually said that.” Terezi smiled. “I’m looking forward to whatever that means.”

“Hm. If there was a murder, shouldn’t one of us have left?””

“I guess. Maybe it’ll happen later.” Terezi’s smile broadens. “Until then I’m sure we can think of a good sending-off gift.”

They get to Nepeta’s room. Nepeta’s sitting on the floor next to the open doorway looking grumpy to say the least and it sounds like there are two people talking inside.

“This is so pathetic!” she exclaims, angrily. “First, Monobear does that..that video thing yesterday and then kills someone to stir up trouble between us. Grrrrrr I hate him!”

“You accuse _Monobear_ of this crime?” She points her cane emphatically in her direction. “Sounds like a desperate ploy to incriminate an innocent citizen for your crime!”

“Monobear’s hardly innocent, dude,” Dave points out, “or a citizen.”

“I am not!” growls Nepeta at her and folds her arms, looking like a child after being put in time out. “ _I_ ’m the innocent one here.”

Terezi giggles and repositions her glasses on the bridge of her nose. “The Ultimate Hunter Student would hardly be incapable of such a heinous crime.”

Nepeta doesn’t respond but instead makes a low growl from the back of her throat.

“We’re still role-playing today, right?”

She immediately perks up. “Definitely! Remember to bring the dragon cape this time.”

“I will.”

_Role-playing…?_

“Let’s go,” says Terezi and walks into Nepeta’s bedroom. Nepeta makes love hearts with her hands and makes kissy faces at him as he follows her in.

The walls of Nepeta’s room are covered in paint. One wall is dedicated to her shipping chart, Dave would probably be more fazed by this and her behaviour in the hall if she hadn’t shown him it before. The other walls aren’t as full, just have doodles here and there. Karkat is sitting on a chair near the bathroom door, Equius is sitting on the bed and they are both glaring at each other.

“What’s happening?” asks Dave.

“I’m stopping this idiot from fucking with the body,” says Karkat, not breaking eye-contact with Equius.

“And I am stopping this buffoon from tampering with the evidence,” says Equius in a low voice.

Dave pauses. “…okay.”

“Sounds stupid. Where’s the body?” asks Terezi.

“In the bathroom,” Equius and Karkat say in unison, still eyeing each other.

“Thanks. Stay here, I’ll want to question you two in a minute.”

In the bathroom there is just…so much blood.

Tavros…no, _the_ _body_ sits propped up against the back wall. His arms are limp at his sides, his head lolling backwards against the cold tile, his chest unmoving, skin pale. A line of dried blood falls from one corner of his mouth down to his round chin. He looks young for his age. He looks like a child.

He suddenly notices that his green t-shirt has a faded quote from Peter Pan on it. Across his chest, just inches above the thick knife buried in his stomach are the words: _Never Grow Up._

Only the handle is visable. Blood circles around him, spilling across the white tiles and running along the clefts between them, thick and dark. The shirt is soaked in it, turning the green fabric dark brown.

_It must have gone all the way through-_ Dave interrupts this thought by retching violently into the nearby toilet. He straightens up and takes deep breaths. He feels Terezi put a hand on his shoulder.

“Must be pretty bad, huh?”

“Yeah,” he says shakily staring at the wall. _Calm down. Be like Bro. Be like Bro._ _Why did I have to break those glasses goddamn it._ He breathes in the tinny air deeply and speaks again: “The body is sitting up against the wall beside the shower, there’s a kitchen knife in his stomach. I guess that’s the cause of death or whatever.”

“Can you describe more?”

“That’s pretty much it.”

“Dave,” her voice almost sounds soothing, “I can tell you aren’t looking at him.”

He reluctantly turns back to the body. _Never grow up_. He takes another rattling breath. “The knife is in so deep that I can only see the handle. It’s a big knife so it may have gone all the way through.”

“May have?”

Dave winces. “Dude, I’m not going to check. Be grateful that I’m even doing this much for you.”

She frowns. “…Fine. What else?”

“There’s a lot of blood around the body on the floor and splatter marks on the wall behind him and a few on the shower door and the mirror.”

“There’s nothing you’re missing out?”

“Uh no.”

“Really look.”

“I’m telling you I don’t...” Dave sees a glimmer from underneath the sink. He kneels down. _No way._ It’s Jade’s hairclip. It’s black with a plastic daisy on it. She’s been wearing it every time he’s seen her.

“What is it?”

“It’s Jade’s hairclip.”

“Wow, you almost looked over that conclusive piece of evidence,” Terezi giggles.

“Even I noticed that,” shouts Karkat from the bedroom.

“I’m _sorry_ I may have overlooked a _tiny_ hairclip because I was so distracted by the fuckin _corpse_ in here.” He turns back to Terezi. “It’s not conclusive though. There’s no way Jade did this.”

“We don’t know that.”

He doesn’t respond. It makes no sense. What would Tavros or Jade be doing in Nepeta’s room? He can remember Tavros trying to flirt with Jade yesterday before the ‘motivation’ and Jade being kind but uninterested. But he can’t remember either one of them talking with Nepeta.

Terezi moves back into the bedroom and Dave follows gladly, shutting the door behind him.

“First thing’s first,” she begins, “who found the body first and when?”

“Nepeta like 45 minutes ago,” says Karkat.

“What did she do after finding it?”

“I dunno. Go ask her yourself.”

“Brilliant.”

“She came to find me,” says Equius in his weirdly soft voice, “on the way back here, we came across this suspicious character.” He nods at Karkat who flushes with rage.

“Suspicious my-“

“What happened then?” asks Terezi, ignoring Karkat.

“He came with us and we saw the body and then that announcement from Monobear sounded.”

“Why was Karkat look suspicious?” asks Dave.

“I did not find him of notable threat at the time, only after we examined the body. The kitchen knife that was used to stab Tavros,” Equius glare darkens, “was the one stolen last night when he was meant to be guarding the weaponry.”

Terezi turns to Karkat, breaking into a dangerous grin. “How very interesting.”

His eyes are wide. “I didn’t do it!” Karkat cries out too quickly.

“Lies!” Terezi screeches in response, brandishing her walking cane.

“Okay so _maybe_ the knife was taken when I was meant to be on duty but I’m not the one who did this! The knife was taken immediately after that fucking “motivation”-whatever. By the time I got to the kitchen it was already gone. I had _nothing_ to do with this!”

“We’ll see about that, small fry,” she sneers.

Karkat flings a finger in Equius’ direction. “What about this guy, huh? The reason Nepeta brought him was _obviously_ for him to help her cover up evidence. Look at him! He could _easily_ move the body.”

He could indeed. Equius is perhaps one of the tallest and definitely the most muscular. Apparently this is because of his way of anger-management, that being that he would punch shit. A lot of shit.

“That is positively ludicrous,” says Equius obviously trying hard to keep him voice steady but not quite succeeding.

He turns to Terezi and Dave, “Since the very beginning they’ve been thick as thieves. Of course, he would pull that shit.”

“Okay, no more bullshit,” Dave rubs his eyes, he can feel a headache coming on, “did either of you actually _see_ the other fuck with the crime-scene?”

Karkat and Equius fall silent.

“Well, uh no,” says Karkat hesitantly.

“Not precisely.”

“Did either of you fuck with the crime-scene?”

“No.”

“No.”

Dave stares at the two of them in astonishment. _What a bunch of morons._ It occurs to him that it’s a miracle that more of them aren’t dead by this point.

“Thanks for wasting our time,” sighs Terezi.

They walk out into the corridor which is now empty. Nepeta must have wandered off.

“There are so many fucking suspects,” groans Dave, “why are there so many?”

“I don’t know,” Terezi bites a painted nail, “it’s strange…The hairclip could have been there before the crime but even if we take that into account, we still have two suspects.”

“Could they have done it together?”

“That would be pointless. It’s in the rules that if more than one person takes part in the crime then it doesn’t count.”

“Hmmm.” _It doesn’t make sense._

Dave’s eye falls on a camera on the opposite wall. If only there was a way to get a hold of the videos from these cameras. But there’s no way Monobear would give over the footage.

_“Attention, students!”_

_Speak of the devil…_

_“I’ve got a biiiiiig surprise for you folks. Head to the gym immediately.”_

***

“Okay!” says Monobear happily from his podium, clapping his paws together. “It appears that my little present yesterday has been effective. And so the fun begins!” He does a stupid little dance.

“It’s obvious that it was you,” says Nepeta angrily, “no one else could do this.”

“I did no such thing I’m afraid. Though I am sure it would make it easier for you to think so.”

It’s all Dave can do not to punch him in the face. His hands hand clenched at his sides.

“There may be a rule or set of rules which you are not yet aware of which will make your experience here even more distressing than you could have imagined.” He leans forward, closer to the microphone. “You may remember that I mentioned a class trial...”

No one says anything. They’ve all learned that nothing that Monobear has to say is ever something one would want to hear.

He pauses as if expecting someone to say something in response. “…you all seem very curious about it. But yes, there will be a class trial.” He starts to pace back and forth along the podium. “Within this trial you will use all your wits and cunning to continue living your prosperous lives.” He stops in the centre and turns to them, leaning in close to the microphone once more. “There is a murderer among you,” he says quietly, “and they will kill you if you don’t kill them first.”

Everyone glances around nervously.

“What do you mean by that?” asks Kanaya from the front. “Should the murderer not be set free?”

Monobear scratches the back of his head, feigning embarrassment. “Yeaaaaah about that,” he can’t help but let out a giggle, “upupupup, I may have been a little _hazy_ on the details of the setting free of murderers. You see, if I simply let the people who have killed others go then I would be rewarding this _awful awful_ behaviour and I would never go such a thing.” He straightens up. “I am a principle after all. No, it will work the way it does in the real world outside these beautiful walls. They will only get away with it if they can keep the fact that they are the murderer a secret. Only then can they be set free. The class trial will provide you with the opportunity to try and find the imposter and punish them.”

“Punish?” Terezi pipes up, interested.

“Yes, my dear. The murderer will be executed for their crime if they are found out!” He starts jumping up and down with excitement. “But here’s the best part: if you don’t accuse the right person, _every single one of you bastards will get executed instead!_ ” He bursts out into high-pitched cackles, clapping his hands together with pure unadulterated glee.

“Ohhh fuck you!” Karkat shouts, sounding angry but looking terrified. “You can’t be serious!”

“Why didn’t you-“ yells Vriska, shaking with anger.

“Why didn’t I say this sooner?” asks Monobear, head cocked to one side. “Well it would be boring if the first person to kill in this dump got away with it. All my years of planning for this great event would be over with in 4 days.”

She continues to tremble.

Dave is also trembling, so are a lot of people. _God fucking dammit. Just when I start getting used to this dump. Bro…Tavros…_ He turns to look at Terezi. But she’s smiling. Has she lost it already?

“What a fascinating set-up, Monobear.” she says, grinning up at him.

Dave stares at her wide-eyed. _Terezi?!_

Monobear also seems surprised. “Thank-you,” he says, his voice not portraying any emotion, not even happiness, “I’m glad one of you sees the beauty in my plan.”

“You were right,” she says, “it _is_ going to be fun.”

Monobear pauses. “Hm,” is all he says before turning his attention back to everyone else. “I have given you your allotted time for investigations already so now we will go our courtroom. Take the lift down to level -3 and you’ll be there. And don’t even try to get to the higher up floors, kids.” He waves a paw side to side playfully, as if waggling a finger. “It won’t wooork. See you there!” He jumps behind the podium and disappears.

Everyone is too startled to question the idea of a courtroom in the basement of a high school. They simply follow his instructions, anxiously talking amongst themselves.

“You were joking, right?” Dave asks Terezi the moment they leave the gym. “Please tell me you were joking.”

“Nope!” she says happily, practically skipping down the corridor.

_Oh god what?_

“This is what I do best. Why on earth would I joke about it being fun?”

_She has lost it._

“This is like being back at work. I’ve missed it sososo much.” Her grin is still spread across her face, he can see her blank eyes behind her glasses gleam with excitement. She links an arm around his and he lets her. She leans close to him. “Isn’t it thrilling?” she whispers.

“I…guess.”

A sinking feeling gnaws on Dave’s stomach. Who is this person who he has somehow become friends with? What’s going to happen? Was Monobear bluffing? Who killed Tavros? Question after question chase each other around his head like a demented ferry-go-round and he almost feels like he might puke again.

They all gather into the elevator which up until now had been closed off like the stairwells. Only once they are all in does the lift begin to move down.

Once again the 14 of them stand together in horrified silence of what is to come.


	4. Aiming to Achieve

Jade fidgets with the seams of her skirt pockets as she feels the elevator’s every rattle and shudder to her very core. The stuffy metallic smell which she was finally getting used to once more feels constricting and claustrophobic compared to the fresh air, rolling green hills and mountain sides she had grown to know well.

She still couldn’t believe what had happened. She hadn’t seen the body or went even close to the crime scene. She instead busied herself with various chores which had been abandoned because of all the excitement. She didn’t want to then but it occurs to her now that it may have been her only opportunity to pay her respects.

  
Only two days ago Tavros was trying to ask her out. Now he doesn’t even exist.

She lets out a sad sigh and glances to her side at Dave who’s staring into space vacantly. He’s so much easier to read without those sunglasses. He notices her. She furrows her brow. _What are we going to do?_ He looks pointedly at Terezi, nodding slightly, and back to her. _She’ll sort it out._ Jade nods slightly but she has her doubts. Terezi is grinning her head off beside him. It’s a little unnerving.

John’s not looking great. His hair is even more dishevelled than usual and dark circles rim his eyes. His expression is blank which Jade has learned is not a good sign.

They all continue to ride the lift in silence with nothing to distract them from the dread which wells in their chests. Eventually the industrial metal doors open.

_Huh, he was right. There is a courtroom in the basement._

And quite a courtroom it is. Jade has seen her fair share of adverts for courtroom dramas and not one of them had a courtroom so elaborate. It is large circular room with marble columns along the walls. Between each set of columns is a varnished oak door with a golden handle and a line of red carpet leading to the stands in the centre of the room. There are 16 stands in total arranged in a circle with a wooden throne on the opposite side with curtains framing it.

Monobear jumps up from behind the wooden throne and bounds down onto it.

“Welcome!” he says, “Come in come in!”

They reluctantly leave the sanctuary of the elevator and walk into the courtroom along the red carpet. Jade takes her place at one of the stands. The table part of the stand has been replaced by a metal board with 15 blood pink buttons on it, each with a name beside it. Jade eyes her own button uneasily. Her mortality is so fragile, now more than ever. _This might be the end for us._ She feels a lump rise in her throat. _We’ve gotta find the murderer. We’ve got to._ She takes a calming breath before raising her eyes just for it to be knocked out of her again.

She is directly opposite the picture frame. It has a photo of Tavros in it but his face is scored out with harsh jagged splatters of pink. It sits behind one of the empty stands.

"Probably just paint..." Rose murmurs but does not look convinced.

“Is that really necessary?” asks Eridan, looking shocked.

“Yes, entirely.” replies Monobear but doesn’t say why. “First thing’s first. All the basic information on this murder is contained on your handhelds if you want to consult it.”

Jade takes her own one out and flicks through it. The murder was in Nepeta’s room, a kitchen knife was the murder weapon and the body was found at 6:30-ish in the morning. _Hm, seems pretty simple._ She had never spoken with Nepeta herself but it looks straight forward.

“Another announcement before we begin: I do not appreciate the destroying of this school’s hardware.” He waves a claw, “Cameras don’t grow on trees, ya know!”

“A camera was broken?” Terezi asks.

“Outside Nepeta’s room last night.”

She smacks Dave on the head with the handle of her cane. “Why didn’t you tell me about the broken camera?” she hisses.

“There wasn’t one,” he grumbles, rubbing the back of his head.

“I replaced it. I am very thorough with keeping everything in working order,” explains Monobear, “you would be too if you were trapping 15 young, able-bodied hostages.” He rubs his paws together. “Anyway, back to business. Here you will voice your opinions and back them up with facts and evidence. Remember, if you are wrong you will all die,” he says in a sing-song voice.

“As if we need reminding," Jade hears Karkat hiss.

“Nooooow,” Monobear says slowly before screaming “BEGIN!”

Everyone looks to Terezi to see what she has to say but she is silent, she is just standing with her arms folded, smiling to herself.

“Um,” Jade begins hesitantly, uncomfortable with the silence, “well, looking at the facts, it seems that Nepeta is the culprit.”

Nepeta and Equius glare at her. She’s suddenly extremely sorry that she decided to speak at all.

“What an interesting conclusion,” says Terezi, her smile growing.

“It’s not really,” says Eridan, stuffily, “I came to that conclusion too. It’s obvious.”

“I didn’t do it!” Nepeta snaps. “And I have proof.”

“Karkat was on duty when the knife went missing last night,” says Equius, “and he was loitering around her room when the body was found.”

Feferi makes a little frown, “It’s not really proof that she didn’t do it.”

“Exactly! Thank-you!” says Karkat, rolling his eyes.

“But it does make him a suspect,” Dave reasons.

“What about the hairclip though?!”

“Hairclip?” asks Jade.

Dave’s eyebrows twitch upward which she guesses is as close as he gets to wincing.

“Your hairclip was found beside Tavros’ dead body,” says Karkat, matter-of-factly.

Jade stiffens. “What?”

“Again, that doesn’t prove innocence,” Dave says wearily to Karkat, “it just gives us another suspect.”

“I lost it yesterday morning! I had already lost it when he died.” Jade cries out.

“Do you have proof of that?” asks Eridan.

“...No. I don’t.”

“Hmmph, should have known. You were so eager to pin the blame on Nepeta.”

 _You were blaming Nepeta too!_ thinks Jade angrily. _All I did was say what everyone was thinking._

“Seems a little coincidental,” says Sollux, who up until this point had been completely silent.

Terezi smiles. “You noticed too.”

“Noticed what?” asks Dave.

“There are too many suspects, that much is obvious,” she begins, “but why? There would be no reason for anyone to collaborate as there would be no reward, the only way there could be something to gain was if one of the conspirators killed the other. But as it is there is only one corpse so there can only be one murderer in this case.”

“Okay, that makes sense,” says Feferi, thoughtfully, “but why are there so many suspects?”

“It is possible that the really culprit is among them and is trying to lead the investigation astray by giving false evidence. But there is another possibility: that the culprit was not among them but is a separate party entirely.”

“How is that even a possibility?” asks Dave, confused.

Terezi grins, baring her teeth in the process. It’s obvious that she’s been building up to this point. “Think about the suspects so far. We’ve got the body in Nepeta Leijon’s, the Ultimate Hunter Student’s, bedroom; the murder weapon was taken when Karkat Vantas, the Ultimate Soldier Student, was on duty; and we’ve got a hairclip belonging to Jade Harley, the Ultimate Marksman Student, right beside the body. Don’t you see a pattern?” She brandishes her cane triumphantly in the air. “The suspects are all the students you’d consider most likely to be able to kill!”

“It’s pretty smart,” nods Sollux.

Karkat sighs. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“It just means that we’re even further away from deciding on anyone,” says Feferi sadly.

“Fucking bullshit,” Vriska mutters.

“It is true that we don’t have a suspect,” begins Terezi, “but I think there is a way to find out who the real culprit is.”

“We’re all ears,” says Jade.

She giggles. “Okay, you guys aren’t gonna like what I’m gonna say buuut,” she bites a nail, “I have reason to believe that the murder didn’t happen in Nepeta’s room.”

Karkat flings his hands in the air in exasperation. “God fucking dammit, Terezi!”

“This is getting ridiculous,” Eridan exclaims, “now we’ve got no suspects, no concrete evidence and no crimscene!”

“No, grumpy-pants, we do have _some_ concrete evidence.” She smirks. “How else do you think I’m going to find out the culprit?”

Dave looks very confused. “Okay...what _is_ the evidence then?”

“Well there’s nothing suggesting that the knife wasn’t the murder weapon,”

“I checked the wound,” says Equius, “it matches with the knife.”

Sollux makes a face. “Gross.”

“So Karkat is a suspect then?” asks Equius hopefully.

“No, we’re still suggesting that all the previous suspects are innocent.” says Terezi dismissively.

He looks unashamedly disappointed.

“Anyway, from what I heard from Karkat about the situation it seems understandable. We all lost someone close to us last night,” she says quietly, “it is reasonable for Karkat to not get back to his post immediately.”

Karkat smiles a little. “Thanks, Terezi.”

“Don’t mention it. So the knife is a viable piece of evidence as is the broken camera and the clean floors.”

“How is the broken camera important?” asks Eridan, “Surely the culprit could have just broken it on their way in or out of Nepeta’s room.”

“The broken camera is the reason why I don’t think the murder took place in Nepeta’s room. The culprit framed others in an effort to push the blame off themselves before knowing about the trial and the punishment so it’s possible that the broken camera was also calculated. So not only was the culprit trying to fool us, but they were trying to fool Monobear as well. Of course, they wanted to escape but they didn’t want to go down without a fight.”

“I see,” says Rose thoughtfully, “so you’re saying that the culprit understood that with Monobear’s extensive range of equipment it wouldn’t take too long for him to figure out who it would be but it would still be a final act of defiance to their captor.”

Terezi smiles. “Yes. And the fact that the camera was broken last night means that the murder happened last night too.”

“Most interesting.”

“So you think that the crime-scene is actually the corridor outside Nepeta’s room?” asks Jade.

“Yes.”

She turns to Monobear. “Can we investigate it now that we know?” she asks hopefully even though she practically knows the answer already.

“Certainly not!” he snaps, “14 of you came in and 14 of you will not leave!”

_Was worth a shot._

“What about the clean floors?” asks Kanaya, “You said they were concrete evidence too.”

“The culprit would need to have a way to clean up the blood,” replies Sollux.

“Yup, so there would only be one person who would not be paid any attention to if they were wheeling around a mop and that would be the person who is assigned to cleaning the floors. Karkat?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re in charge of arranging chores, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll get it.” He fumbles around in his pockets until he extracts a crumbled piece of paper. He looks at it, he doesn’t look up. “Vriska,” he says quietly, staring at the paper. “It was Vriska.” he says a little louder.

Everyone turns to her, shocked. Her eye darts around them. “You can’t be serious!” she exclaims.

“Vriska…” Terezi has gone pale. “Why did you…”

“Oh _please_!” she says smirking, “you can’t be serious!”

“You’re the only one who could,” says Rose, “you’ve got the only psychological profile for it.”

“Oh yeah? How?”

Her expression solemn and grim, she regards her. “You are the Ultimate Lucky Student,” she begins, voice devoid of emotion, “so you would have the most confidence that everything would conclude in your favour. This would mean that you would be the most likely to be the first to commit murder. Last night’s ‘motivation’ was just a trigger for you. You would do it eventually. You also are arrogant enough to attempt to mess with Monobear. You could have simply framed a single student but no, you decided that wasn’t enough: you had to frame 3. Framing 3 people would have everyone confused and the broken camera would at least even fool Monobear for a while. This way you would leave with a bang and everyone would marvel at your cunning once you were let out and the ruse was discovered. You’d get the attention you feel you deserve. But you had no idea that either you would die or we would die, not until Monobear’s announcement today. You have also had your fair share of violence or at least exposure to pain in your past what with your removed eye so you would have been desensitised enough to it to be able to think clearly even after taking somebody’s life.”

Vriska stares, wide-eyed, face pale.

“Why Tavros?” asks Jade quietly to no one in particular. “Why him?”

She starts as Vriska suddenly points her, breaking into a grin. “Exactly!” she cries and turns to Terezi, victorious. “Why on Earth would someone like me kill Tavros of all people? Like if I were gonna kill anybody I’d go for the fuckin tank here.” She gestures at Equius. “No one would expect that shit!”

Terezi is silent.

“Oh dear,” says Vriska, shaking her head, and tuts, “no evidence, huh? No _clever_ ideas for this one? What a shame. Now that we've sorted that out, let's actually focus on trying to find the real kill-”

“It was you,” says a low voice, Jade hardly recognises.

He’s glaring at her with such venom that he hardly looks like himself at all. His fists are clenched at his sides. “You are….it was you.” 

Vriska raises her eyebrows, smirking detestably. “Excuse me?”

“You know something,” says Rose.

John nods mournfully. “Last night,” he says, “last night he asked me to take his life.”

***

 _He’s dead. I can’t believe he’s dead._ John sobbed as the events in the video replayed over and over in his head. His dad is dead. He’s an orphan. He’s dead.

There is a rapid knocking on the door.

John hurriedly wiped his eyes and opened it. Outside stood Tavros, his own eyes shrink-wrapped in tears. Without saying anything to each other, John enveloped him in a hug and Tavros started to cry pitifully into his shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I can’t stand it anymore.” gasped Tavros.

“Yeah, you’ve said that before.”

“I mean it this time.”

“What?”

Tavros pulled away and his breath was still catching in his throat as he took a large kitchen knife out from the waistband of his jeans.

John flinched away. “You aren’t going to…?!”

“There are only t-two ways out of this place,” he stumbles out, “death or killing and I’m not going to kill. I can’t. I’m t-too weak.” He cradled the knife in his hands, staring at the blade. He looked back up at John, his brown eyes filled with desperation as he wordlessly offered him the knife.

John backed away. “…No.”

“You could kill me. You could get out of here.”

“No.”

Tavros started shaking his head. Tears rolled down his cheeks. “I can’t stay here.”

“Tav…”

“Please. D-do it for me.”

John grabbed him by the shoulders, looking him dead in the eye. He shook him a little and his thin body shook weakly, all will gone. “You don’t have to do this.”

“No, I do. You don’t understand,” he sniffed, still shaking his head side to side, “but you will. You’re going to be stuck here forever if you don’t do this and I will just get killed by someone else.”

He looked so pathetic. So small as he shakily held the massive carving knife in his white clenched fists.

“You d-d-don’t want that, d-do you?” he stuttered out, eyes still streaming.

***

“What happened then?”

John is staring at the ground. He mumbles something.

“What?”

“I let him leave.”

“…Leave?”

“I couldn’t do it…but he was determined. He wouldn’t listen to me and I was so tired. I gave up on him…and now he’s dead.” He raises his head but does not meet anyone’s eye, glaring at some wooden panels. “So there’s your motive. He was easy prey and she took advantage.”

Vriska for once is speechless. Her arms are crossed across her stomach, hands shaking violently. “…I d-don’t want to die.” She turns to Terezi, who is standing statue-still. “ _Please_ , Terezi,” the shaking intensifies, “ _please_ , sis. I don’t want to. Please.” The words don’t seem to mean much but still they come. They roll around and tumble out her mouth one after another, with little association to the one before. She reaches for Terezi’s hand across the stand. “Why? Why? I don’t want to. Why did you do this? I’m sorry, please.”

“You are a murderer.” Terezi says coldly. “You were going to kill us all. I had no choice.” Her head jerks toward Monobear. “Are we gonna make use of these fancy buttons or what?”

“Indeed we are, little lady!” Monobear says happily. “As wonderful as this beautiful display of despair has been, we must not forget about the execution. Press the button of the person you suspect to be the murderer! In 3 – 2 – 1 – GO!”

 _I have no choice._ Without giving herself a second to think it through, Jade forces herself to press Vriska’s button. _Survival at all costs._

Monobear jumps up. “VRISKA SERKET. YOU ARE GUILTY OF THE MURDER OF TAVROS NITRAM.”

“Please no!” Vriska grips the wood of her stand, “Please just 2 more minutes!”

“No time to waste!” He grabs his garble.

“JUST 2 MORE MINUTES OF LIVING AND I SWEAR I WILL GO WILLINGLY.” Her face is contorted by her screams. “I WILL GO WITH A SMILE ON MY FUCKING FACE JUST PLEASE.”

Monobear makes gagging noises. “Bleugh! That would be no fun at all!” He raises his garble and brings it down on the big red button in front of him. “Goodnight, Miss Serket.”

For one second all is silence except for a distant sound of metallic humming, slowly getting louder.

Suddenly the wooden door behind her is flung open. A chain is around her neck. In one forceful yank, her strong wiry body is limp and flying backwards down into the dark corridor. A high-pitched scream trails after her. The door of the corridor remains open.

Nobody moves from their stands.

“None of you are wanting to watch the show, eh?” asks Monobear thoughtfully. “Well then I guess I can bring the show to you.” Flat-screen TVs spring out from behind wooden panels and line the walls. “Suit yourselves but I’m not missing this for the world!” He jumps behind his throne and disappears.

They light up and an odd sight fills the screens. Vriska is tossed against a massive multi-coloured spinning wheel. Chains wrap around her wrists, waist and ankles, securing her body in place, spread-eagled, game-show style. She struggles helplessly against them, wriggling and straining. A single florescent lamp hangs overhead, casting dark shadows across her face. Names of various items circle the edge of the spinning wheel and a pointer is at the top. There is no sound other than the rattling of her chains and her breathing.

Jade’s mind reels. _What’s happening?_ She glances around the room. Everyone else stands mesmerised in confusion. _What kind of execution is this?_

Text fills the screen: “Starting in 3…2…1…GO!” and then a fog-horn sound effect plays. Monobear jumps into the shot and spins the wheel in one fast fluid gesture. Fast music music starts to play as round and round she goes, screaming and screaming. The colours of the wheel blur into a dizzy tango as the repetitive mujsic continues to play. After an eternity the wheel finally begins to slow and the camera zooms in on the pointer and the words flying past it.

Mirrormugknifeplatehammerarrow-herring-dice-machette…..sword…………feather ………………………..lance.

“NOT SO LUCKY ANYMORE!” flashes across the screen.

The camera zooms out, more lights flash on and the camera turns around.

Gasps echo throughout the room.

Facing Vriska are rows upon rows of beetle-black cannons. They all simultaneously raise up in their metal stands and aim at the spinning wheel. The camera turns back, taking in Vriska’s horrified expression before the title fills the screen: “AIMING TO ACHIEVE 101”. Monobear spins the wheel again and the cannons begin to fire.

They start off slow and then speed up whilst the wheel also speeds up through the work of some built-in mechanism. Round and round she goes, colours of wheel and lance blurring and smearing into one single dark murky colour. The explosions of the cannons and thudding of lances hitting the wheel becomes so fast and loud that to accommodate the fast happy music gets louder and louder too. Between the rain of black lances falling fast and heavily and the rate that the wheel is spinning, little can be seen or heard of Vriska. But as it begins to slow and the canons begin to stop firing, the picture becomes clear and the music comes to a halt.

Dozens missed lances scatter the floor. The wheel is skewered past the point of repair. The multi-coloured plastic is shattered and buckled between the lances embedded in it.

Vriska in the centre.

Unscathed.

“WHAT?”

“What the hell…”

“Did it not work?”

“What happened?” asks Terezi.

“She’s still alive,” says Kanaya breathlessly, caught between relief and something else.

Terezi freezes. “What?” she whispers.

Vriska looks even more surprised than everyone else to find herself in a clearing between the lances. Her mouth gapes open as she strains her neck, checking all limbs are accounted for. Her surprise begins to morph into triumph and she lets out a “HA!” before one final lance is fired through the air and plants itself into her stomach with a final cracking thud.

“What was that?” asks Terezi, jabbing Dave in the ribs.

“Not as alive anymore,” he replies quietly.

Vriska writhes against her chains in agony. Gasping in more rattling breaths. Hands clenched into fists. Choking up blood which begins to drizzle down onto the floor.

“Good,” says Terezi with a shaky voice.

Her face contorts with rage. She lets out a final scream. A blood-curdling, terrifying scream. It sounds from all the TVs circling the room at once in an ear-splitting cacophony.

Vriska finally succumbs and her head falls, silent, limp but the scream continues, to echo, to ring, up and down the length of the room as Monobear cackles.

Monobear’s cartoon face flashes across the TV screens before they once again go black.


	5. Liberosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter art coming soon!

In Hope’s Peak Highschool the dead are taken care of quickly and effectively. As a result, in Hope’s Peak Highschool there is no mourning. The lack of closure will fester and make for more receptive hosts for despair. Honestly, why settle for sad acceptance when you can get the real deal? Monobear explains this contentedly over the loudspeakers as the students drift back to their dorms.

_“In the spirit of celebration of that adrenaline-pumping show, I have given you a whole new world to explore! The eastern stairwell is now officially open for good so you bastards can go have a look around or something. Chao!”_

Even to the most down-hearted of students the beckon of a new environment is irresistible. They traipse up stairs and begin their aforementioned exploration. It soon becomes abundantly clear how deprived they had become as they really do feel like they found themselves in a whole new world. Everything from the laptops to the little hooks by the doors inspire awe and wonder.

There is a massive library with private study rooms, computers and, of course, shelves upon shelves of books still catalogued perfectly. There is also a gym, pool and a set of changing rooms. Which were greeted with an “Oh. My. Glub!” from Feferi who then promptly scurried inside, closely followed by Equius.

Sollux, Karkat and Kanaya, all ridiculously not up for anything which requires enthusiasm, gravitate toward the computers.

“Fuck,” states Sollux from behind one of the laptops, “no internet.”

“Big surprise there,” says Karkat, slouching in one of the desk chairs but still managing to look uncomfortable. He looks from Sollux to Kanaya. Both of them seem to be busying themselves, Sollux with the laptop and Kanaya investigating a small hole in the floor.

“Hm, it could be possible that the floor here is weak,” Kanaya ponders, “we could attempt to break through it with the help of the large one.”

“You mean Equius.”

“Why? You want a shortcut into the cafeteria?”

She gets up from the floor and swats dust off her skirt. “No,” she replies patiently, “just a thought.”

Sollux snorts. “That has to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”

She smiles patiently. “Monobear has to get around the building somehow to fix cameras and so forth. Maybe there are passages.”

“Maybe but good luck dragging that sweaty hairball out of the gym.”

Everyone’s thinking about it but no one is willing to talk about it. They all killed someone today. And Karkat would be damned if he were the one to break that silence.

“…I’m gonna go back to my room.” He says getting up.

“You do that,” Sollux mumbles as he types away.

“Good-bye.”

He treads back through the library.

He had not actually seen Vriska die. He closed his eyes and covered his ears because he’s nothing but a coward. A big idiot stupid coward.

Karkat gnaws at the inside of his cheek.

It didn’t stop him from hearing Vriska’s earth-shattering scream. He could feel it rattling around his skull and reverberating down his spine to the pit of his stomach and he couldn’t take it.

The beginning of the end.

Now more people are gonna start killing. Those first days of peace were never going to last forever but still. It was starting to look like a community that could survive and then this shit had to happen.

He reaches the stairwell and regards the shutters blocking off the 2nd floor. It’s sick how they’re getting rewarded for this. He plods down the stairs, his footsteps echoing a little.

God, he’s gonna have to arrange more chores for cleaning the first floor as well. What if that means keeping the pool in good condition too? He has no idea how the fuck pools work. With the library it would probably just need dusting and vacuuming and the changing rooms would have to whattheshit-

Karkat stumbles over something at the bottom of the stairs, loses his balance and falls over, banging his shoulder against the wall and his knee against the floor. “FUCK!” On all fours, he turns to face the culprit: a large biscuit tin which now has a rather large dent in it.

“Karkat?” asks a quiet voice.

He looks around, confused. “Uh yeah?”

“Under here.” A white cane sticks out from under the stairs.

Karkat gingerly gets up, still holding the tin box and goes to look. Sitting in the corner is someone in a…dragon costume? “Terezi?”

A big red plushie dragon head is obscuring most of her face and the cape bit is wrapped around her body like a blanket but it’s her alright. He hardly recognised her voice without its usual confidence and bravado. She’s sitting in the corner with her arms around her legs and her chin resting on her knees. “Hey,” she grins a little, head tilted to the side, “did you fall over like a complete idiot?”

“No. I fell over with the majesty of a fucking eagle.”

“Hehehehe, likely story. That sounded like my chalk box.”

“Chalk box?” Karkat turned it over in his calloused hands and heard a faint rattling from inside.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

He ducked under the stairs. “Here.” He tapped it a little against her hand, she got the idea and took hold of it. “Sorry, it’s a little dented now.”

She runs her hands over it. “Pfft! Wow, you really did a number on it.”

“Sorry.” He pauses awkwardly. “Mind if I join you?”

“Nah, I wasn’t really doing anything anyway.”

He shuffles up to a spot of wall beside her and settles. “So what you doing down here?”

She’s quiet for a moment. “I don’t know,” she says finally, “I guess I was planning on doing some sick drawings with my chalk under here but…I didn’t really feel like it.”

He can empathise all too well. “…You wanna talk about it?”

“No. I really don’t want to talk about me.”

“Okay.”

“Tell me about yourself.”

“What?”

She smirked. “Go on, grumpy-pants.”

“…”

“Fine, tell me about your title. Ultimate Soldier Student, right? Seems like a pretty big deal!”

“It’s not really…it just means that I’m the youngest decent soldier in the country.”

“Youngest?”

Karkat sighed. “People can’t join the army til they’re 18 unless they have connections like I have the good fortune to have. So I’ve been a soldier since I was 14 and cause there is honestly only like 1 other soldier that young in the country I really don’t have to do much to be this Ultimate Soldier Student. Not like it really got me anywhere good in the end…”

“Heh, wow I’ve really got the wrong person trying to cheer me up,” she chuckles.

“Good luck finding anyone else who would do better. Maybe Monodouchebag would heighten your mood with those delightful jokes of his.”

“Dave would probably do better.”

“Oh yeah? Where’s he now? Off vomiting in other crime scenes?”

“Look who’s being all touchy!”

“I am NOT.”

“Are too!”

“This is stupid.”

“I know.” Terezi leaned her dragon-ed head against his shoulder. “What’s going to happen to us now?” she asks quietly.

 _Us._ Karkat feels her warmth against him and can’t help but feel a slight swelling of happiness in his chest for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. He almost forgot about Vriska and Tavros, even Monobear. All that mattered was here under the stairs. “I don’t know.” Karkat prodded the big plushie dragon head. “What’s with the dragon thing?”

“There are these toys called stalemates which are little dragons. This is just the outfit version of one.”

“Huh.”

“Mostly I just like the colour.”

“So you’re not completely blind then?”

“…Sort of but it’s kinda hard to explain. Dave’s always asking about it. It’s really annoying.”

Karkat paused, trying to choose his words carefully. “You know, you did the right thing.”

“I know I did…but this isn’t justice. This isn’t what I want.”

“I know.”

“There’s only one person in this place that should be punished and it wasn’t Vriska.”

He remembered her conversation with Monobear before the trial. “You were excited about it before.”

She inhaled and exhaled with a “Yeaaah. It seemed like fun. Like a regular trial on steroids with big consequences. But then…” she sighed. “I fucked up.”

“No, you didn’t.”

She doesn’t contradict him but he can tell that she is not convinced.

***

“What?”

Feferi stares at the ground. Her long, dark, glistening hair is still damp from the pool. “I’m really sorry, Eridan.”

Her serious tone scares him. “Why?”

She folds her arms and kicks the ground a little. “Look I have really enjoyed this. God knows this has been awful but your company has really helped and I mean that. And I do still like you.” She finally makes eye contact with him. “But it has been…exhausting.”

Eridan blinks. “Exhausting?”

“Yes. What with the emotional theatrics and then…” she leans in closer, glancing around, “what happened last night.” she whispers.

He groans. “Oh c’mon, I could tell you were thinking about it too!”

“No! No, I was not!” She says a little too loudly, flinches and glances up and down the corridor to make sure no one heard her. She turns her attention back to him.

“He came right to my door and was standing right there!” he hisses, “Who wouldn’t be tempted given the circumstances?”

“Anyone with half a conscience!” she whispers back furiously, her fuchsia eyes flashing dangerously. “I didn’t know that you were the kind of person to consider it. If I knew that you were the kind of person I would have to stop from killing an innocent person then I would have never gotten involved in the first place!”

Her venom surprises him. He narrows his eyes. “Who else you going to turn to? Everyone in this place is desperate to get out, not just me.”

“Not everyone is like you, Eridan. John didn’t kill him.”

“Yeah, well he’s a pansy.”

Feferi sighs, “Look I do still want us to be friends.”

“If that’s what caused this, I’m sorry.”

“You can’t take something like that back, Eridan. He’s dead now and there’s no taking that back. I could have done something to help but I was too busy restraining you!”

“And you did a great job cause now I’m not dead as well like good ol’ Vrisk.”

Feferi lets out a frustrated noise.

“Isn’t that proof that I need you?” He attempts to hold her smooth, strong hands but she pulls them away.

“A relationship can’t go on if one half of it is not happy with it and I am no longer happy when I’m with you.” She shoves her hands into her hoodie’s pockets. “I’m sorry.” And she walks away.

Eridan stands still as wave upon wave of blackness begins to lap across the shores of his mind.

***

“I was not aware of that.”

Rose smiled as she walked hand in hand with Kanaya down the stairs. “It’s a relatively simple concept but you would be surprised at how often it is ignor-“

Kanaya abruptly stops walking. “Did you hear that?”

They stand in silence and a kind of echoed mumbling can be heard from below. “What is that?”

They cautiously walk further down the stairs and mumbling starts to get louder.

_“Calling Senator Lemonsnout to the stand.”_

_“Which one’s he? This one?”_

_“Yes, he’s a real asshole.”_

_“I never liked the look of him.”_

Kanaya and Rose glance at each other confused and continue to tread lightly down the stairs but they can’t see anyone at the bottom, just an array of colourful plushie toys and chalk. The voices are louder now.

_“Okay, what about- seriously stop eating the red chalk.”_

_“Why should I? It’s delicious!”_

_“It’s CHALK.”_

_“That doesn’t mean it can’t be delicious.”_

Rose and Kanaya stifle their giggles. They lean over the railings and can spy two pairs of feet sticking out from beneath, one pair bare, the other in black combat boots, both surrounded by the odd toys.

“Damnit! Just give me the chalk!”

“NEVER!”

There are sounds of a scuffle below.

“Fuck off!”

They continue to barely conceal their laughter as they walk quietly out the door.

Karkat starts, now covered in several different shades of chalk. “Did you just hear something?”

Terezi pops the red of the stick of chalk in her mouth, triumphantly. “Nooo, I can never hear anything with you shouting all the time.”

“Your voice ain’t exactly quiet either, you know.”

“Whatever.” She stretches, her elbows making an alarmingly loud cracking sound. “Whazza time?” she yawns.

He leans out from underneath the stairs to look at the clock on the wall opposite the stairs. “7:30.”

“Really? The day’s felt so much longer.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“We should probably get something to eat.”

Karkat agrees enthusiastically and they head to the kitchen, Terezi still wearing her dragon cape, walking cane in hand, Karkat still mildly multi-coloured. After several hours of talking, yelling and playing courtroom with stalemates, there is little more to say. So they walk in silence.

It occurs to him that he has found an allegiance.

Albeit, a rather loud, argumentative allegiance. But that is enough to give him hope that maybe they can survive.

They may be trapped but they may well be able to find happiness within these walls. He was not sure before but, with Terezi by his side, he is struck by the thought that maybe, maybe he won’t go insane. Maybe this will be enough for them. Maybe everything will be okay.

Down the corridor from the kitchen door, Terezi for some reason starts to slow down.

“What is it?”

“I…oh god.” she freezes.

She suddenly runs at full-speed down to the kitchen, Karkat quickly follows. She pulls open the door so fast it rattles in its hinges.

The thick smell of blood overwhelms Terezi’s senses and Karkat stares wide-eyed in horror.

In a surprising turn of events, it becomes clear that he was wrong.

It becomes clear that he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Bodies litter the floor. Eridan’s dead, body’s destroyed, so many stab wounds and slashes, so much blood, he lies face-down. Feferi lies on her back, hole in her chest, eyes still big with surprise behind her goggles. Sollux is limp, slumped against the wall, blood still dripping down his neck from the back of his head. Rose leans over Eridan, covered in blood, katana gripped in her hands. She sways unsteadily, breathing heavily.

“What _did you DO_?!”

With visible effort, she lifts her head but doesn’t look at them.

“…I committed murder.”


	6. Dualism 101

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies, I'm really getting behind on the chapter art. But I should get it done soon!

Kanaya never had much of a musical mind but as she and her fellow students descend into the underbelly of the school for the second time, a strange odd melody flows through her head, round and round like clear water, flowing ceaselessly back into itself.

This is her only respite.

 _Rose, you fool._ She stands in the corner of the lift, head down, the perfect actress, composure held brilliantly, in the spotlight of everyone’s attention. They glance nervously at her, glare and whisper about her. Her friends, John, Dave and Jade solemnly stand by her, no doubt having already been told her big confession. Jade and John have linked arms with her and Dave looks pale beside them, behind a new pair of sunglasses, rounded this time.

Her almost white blonde hair catches the florescent light above her, making it glow bright and angelic as her soft face is cast in shadow.

She didn’t do it. Why is she doing this? How could she be so selfish? Kanaya had tried to talk sense into her but she didn’t understand. She seemed completely convinced, or maybe she’s just _that_ good of an actress. Even for her it was hard to tell.

If only she could have given up this act then maybe they could have made the best of their time left together. But as it is, the last conversation she can say that they had was about case studies and the evaluation of Karkat and Terezi’s prospects as a romantic couple before...

Kanaya marches across the industrial-size lift and grabs her arm from John. She wants to shake some sense into her, do something, anything to make her stop. Rose looks up at her, innocently with eyes big and questioning. But that’s exactly what she is: innocent. “You need to stop this immediately I beg of you,” Kanaya whispers, “you are going to kill everyone.”

“Hey, what are you doing?” asks John, pushing at her shoulder.

Rose shakes her head. “No, that is exactly what I’m avoiding by turning myself in.” Kanaya notices that she raises her voice slightly for her audience, “You need to snap out of this delusion. I did it and no amount of playing pretend is going to change that.”

Kanaya’s words from yesterday coming out of Roses’ mouth. She almost flinches at the sound, her heart flutters in her chest.

Jade steps up to her. “Let her go!” she says forcefully.

She lets go of her wrist and takes her place back at the other side of the lift, as Rose’s friends whisper to her asking if she’s okay and what that was about.

Rose doesn’t understand that this is all in vain. She doesn’t want to understand. She decided to save her and will not back down. Although Kanaya knows that she does not want to die, she knows also that she will not have the capacity to live with herself if she graduates. She can’t let it happen.

Her heart aches as she stares at Rose. Rose gazes back, coolly, knowingly. Kanaya wants to say everything in her mind, all the unspoken words which neither had felt the need to voice before, before they disappear. But they have an audience and she knows how all the sentimentalism would sound. Two parties willingly taking the blame, one with evidence, one without evidence, spewing romantic rubbish. Who would you believe?

She even managed to create witnesses. Goddamn her.

No, Kanaya will have to wait until they get to the courtroom to provide her confession.

Sollux survived but in a mixture of fortune and misfortune had no recollection of what happened. He had also lost his sight during the fray from the hit to the back of his head, creating brain damage to his visual cortex. Oddly he seemed remarkably chipper about this development when Kanaya overheard him chatting away in a very un-Sollux-like manner to anyone who would listen in the cafeteria. Though that could well just be a result of the morphine found in the nurses’ office. He was apparently unconscious for the majority of the proceedings. So she is the only one still alive who knows the truth.

Kanaya glances at Terezi who seems to be deep in thought. She was the driving force of the last trial and will probably be the same for every proceeding trial as well what with her title of Ultimate Lawyer Student. She needs her on her side…but how?

The lift judders to a halt and the grey metal doors open.

The gaudy courtroom once again practically blinds Kanaya. You would think that with the amount of money that Monobear must be in possession of he would at least invest in an interior decorator with some sense of colour and taste. What kind of imbecile would pair together red, gold and _white_ in the 21 st bloody century?

Kanaya blinks in surprise. What the hell is she thinking about?

They all take their places at the stands, now four already occupied with photographs of the recently deceased. Kanaya avoids looking at Eridan’s photograph.

Monobear jumps down from the ceiling onto his wooden throne, holding his rounded paws up like a cheerleader. “Welcome! Welcome everybody to our second class trial of the semester! Who knew that you guys were so bloodthirsty considering how coyly you avoid murder at the beginning. So much wasted time. But now we are rewarded with two trials within the span of two days, the second being a double homicide!” He performs a happy jig. “So much despair! It makes me tingly all over my furry body!”

Nepeta makes a face. “Gross.”

“Anyway! Time for the moment of truth: who will go on to live another day and who will join our deceased brethren.” He gestures at the photos. “Look over the information in your handhelds and now without further ado, let us commence with the trial of the murder of Feferi Peixes and Eridan Ampora. 3 – 2 – 1….GO!”

Karkat is the first to speak, he almost sounds bored. “Rose is the murderer. We witnessed her covered in blood, holding a knife at the scene of the crime and she also confessed.” He looked lazily around the room. “Can we just get this over-with?”

Kanaya opens her mouth but Terezi speaks before she gets a chance to say anything.

“Before we do anything so hasty I would like to have a few words with the confessed.”

“Pardon me but I-“ Kanaya tries.

She hits her walking cane against her stand several times and screeches: “No, interrupting within this court of law!”

“I did not…” She sighs and manages to say: “I am the culprit. Rose is lying to protect me due to some absurd logic and sentimentalism.”

There is a good ten seconds of silence. John, Jade and Dave looked to be caught between surprise and relief. Rose doesn’t react.

Terezi’s characteristic grin spreads across her face.

“But that’s not what me and Te-“ Karkat begins.

Terezi paps him on the arm with her cane. “Let’s just walk this one out, Karkles.”

“She will kill you all if you believe her,” says Kanaya, trying her best not to portray any emotion, “she’s lying.”

She looks intrigued, her dark eyebrows raising above the rim of her red glasses. “Okay…We’ll hear both of your stories and then decide which one of you is guilty,” Terezi proposes, “it would be a disservice to not look over all the testimonies.”

Rose narrows her eyes at Kanaya with a look that makes her blood run cold. “My aren’t we projecting today.” She turns her attention back to Terezi. “You were wanting me to answer a question?”

She leans across her button panel with interest. “Why did you kill two people and attempt to kill a third? You _did_ realise that one would be enough to give you freedom, right?”

Rose’s nostrils flare a little at her patronising tone. “Yes, I did. It was a series of circumstances which resulted in the unusually high body-count.”

“Like what?”

“Like I only killed one of them. Feferi was already dead when I got there.”

“So there is another murderer,” states Equius, “this must be why there are two people confessing.”

Rose shakes her head. “No, Eridan was the other murderer, he was the one I killed.”

“Oh? How interesting.” Terezi cocks her head to one side. “Tell us everything.”

“I went to the kitchen for a late snack as I had not been able to eat all day after Vriska’s execution…” She takes a shallow breath and says shakily: “Eridan was standing over Feferi’s dead body with a sword in his hand, blood was…blood was everywhere.”

Kanaya stomach lurches in disgust at the memory of the scene.

“Sollux was slumped against the wall, I thought he was dead too,” Rose continues, “I thought he might kill more so I saw only course of action: to kill him first.”

“What did you do?”

“I grabbed his sword from his hand, he turned around and started trying to wrestle it off me, in the process I got covered in Feferi’s blood which was on the floor. Somewhere in the skirmish I injured his arm with the sword. This debilitated him so then I was able to attack him more…effectively. I lost track of how many times I stabbed him. Afterwards I was so overwhelmed with the consequences of what I had done that I could not move and simply stood by his body.” She purses her dark lips. “And that is when you and Karkat walked in.”

Karkat nods. “That sounds about right.”

Terezi bites her nails thoughtfully. “Sounds like a solid confession.” She turns to Kanaya, smiling. “Your turn. What happened?”

She only has one chance to sell her story and she is painfully aware of that fact. She can feel her thin shirt cling to her back and her hands shake when she does not hold them steady. Kanaya clears her throat delicately and begins: “Rose and I had been in the library for the majority of the afternoon and left for the kitchen at approximately 20 past 7 for refreshments and hot beverages. Much as Rose as stated in her own confession, she nor I had much of an appetite before that time.”

“How did you remember the time?” asks Terezi suddenly.

Kanaya freezes. _Did I say something incorrect? Did it sound false because I knew the time of the incident? Would a murderer be so wrapped up in the murdering that they would forget the time?_ She is a murderer and _she_ remembered. So it would be fine, right? _Right?_ “There is a clock in the east stairwell.” She tries to sound calm. “I glanced at it before we exited into the corridor.”

Kanaya holds her breath as Terezi continues biting her nails. “Oh yes, I forgot about that.” She says finally and Kanaya exhales. “Anyway, continue.”

“We went into the kitchen and the scene is much as Rose described: Feferi deceased, Sollux unconscious and Eridan very much alive, holding a katana. He noticed immediately when we walked in and attempted to attack us, slashing wildly with the sword.” He was so panicked that he didn’t lay a single hit. His eyes were wild too and angry. His voice rasped as he yelled at them to back away. Her voice slows under the weight of the memory. “We managed to avoid the attacks, Rose tackled him to the ground and he dropped his sword which I quickly picked up. He started fighting back against Rose and” She can still feel warm handle in her hand. “I realised that I was going to have to use it to save us. I told Rose to move out the way.” She can smell the thick blood. “She did and I stabbed him in the chest.” The feel of his ribcage giving way. “But he was not dead yet, he was still squirming and screaming.” No one heard him. The door had swung shut behind us. “So I pulled the knife out of him and stabbed him in the stomach but he was still moving.” _I wanted the suffering to stop._ “I wanted him to stop. So I continued. It was vaguely similar to a trance. I do not recall most of damage caused to his body. But I know it was my doing.” Her eyes rest on her button in front of her as she remembers standing up and realisation washing over her. “I was disgusted with myself so absconded through the cafeteria.”

The room is quiet. Terezi’s smile has disappeared.

“Rose was most likely discovered just after that.” Kanaya adds sheepishly.

“Woah,” Nepeta whispers, looking more impressed than she should.

The silence continues and Kanaya begins to feel hopeful. Maybe she’s succeeded in convincing them.

“So you are saying,” Terezi begins, “that you were with Rose? Opposed to Rose’s confession stating that she was alone?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Hmm okay. So why exactly did you ‘abscond’?”

 _She’s doubting the confession._ “I-I was upset.” She hopes no one noticed the shakiness of her voice. “I had killed someone. I wanted to get out of there.”

“Seems a little strange though... Why would you escape the crime-scene just to confess at a later point?”

Kanaya grips her hands. “I was not escaping.”

“It doesn’t seem very logical for you, does it?”

Her face feels hot with anger and says crisply: “If you were able to see it for yourself you wouldn’t want to stay there either.” before immediately regretting it. That probably sounded too defensive.

Terezi stops mid-nail-chew and grins. “Smelling it was enough.” Thankfully she drops the topic. “You said that Rose is making a false confession because of some absurd logic and sentimentalism. What do you mean by that?”

Rose is staring at her with her arms folded, unblinking under her fringe. Kanaya’s chest gives another ache.

“She wants me to live.” she says quietly.

Terezi turns to Rose. “Rose, why _are_ you confessing?”

Rose straightens her neck slightly. “Because I did it. Because it would be wrong for everyone to die because of me.” She narrows her eyes. “Similarly it would be wrong for everyone to die because of her trying to protect me with her lies. Her addition of more grisly details does not make up for a lack of evidence.”

Terezi nods. “True.” She seems to think for a moment. “But if she were trying to protect you…surely she would remove you from the situation entirely in her testimony. Rather than making you a witness.”

Rose attempts to look thoughtful but Kanaya can tell that she is tense. “I suppose you’re right about that...”

Terezi waits for her to continue but she doesn’t. “Hmmm,” she drops the topic “what about Feferi’s murder? There doesn’t seem to be much reason for Eridan to kill her…”

“Apparently she broke up with the asshole and he turned out to be more than a little pissed about it.,” Sollux explains, “She and I were talking when it happened.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I was under the impression from my associate-“ she hit Dave on the arm with her cane, “that you didn’t remember anything.”

“He said he didn’t,” replied Dave coolly, seeming to have gotten used to Terezi’s generous use of her cane.

“Bits and pieces have been coming back to me since I regained consciousness. I can now pretty much remember the entire thing…up until the brain damage bit of course.”

“Could’ve said sooner, douchebag,” Karkat hissed.

Sollux shrugged. “This was more interesting.”

“Brilliant! A new witness!” Terezi claps her hands together in excitement. “Okay, so what happened?”

“I was on guard-duty in front of the weapon-cupboard-”

“It is more similar to a small room really.”

“…Thank-you for your input, Equius.”

“You are welcome.” he replies, sincerely.

Sollux groans, “I was on guard-duty in front of the weapon _‘room’_.” He air-quotes unenthusiastically, his eyes no-doubt rolling behind his blue and red glasses. “And Feferi came along. We spoke for a little while and then Eridan showed up, suspecting the worst…” His unaffected tone cracks a little and he swallows. “He attacked me and that’s all I really remember. That’s probably when the whole brain damage thing went down.” He smiles sheepishly, scratching his neck. “I didn’t find out what happened to Feferi until I woke up in the nurse’s office an hour or so later.”

“That proves that he took the sword from the weapon room,” says Karkat.

“That was obvious from the beginning, idiot,” Dave tries his best to give a smirk but his heart just doesn’t seem to be in it.

Terezi sighs. “As great as it is to have another witness, that testimony really doesn’t help us decide on which one of these two is the culprit,” she waves her cane in Kanaya and Rose’s general direction.

And Rose still has two witness. _Oh god what am I going to do?!_

“Why are you even questioning this shit, TZ?” asks Karkat incredulously. “We were right _there_!”

She remains pensive.

Kanaya continues to clutch her wrist. How could she prove that she was there. She didn’t get any injuries from the brawl with Eridan. She didn’t get blood on her clothes because she was wearing short sleeves that day and because of the katana she didn’t have to kneel down to stab him, bloodying her skirt in the process. She washed the blood off her arms without thinking. She had no idea that she would have to prove her guilt. She had no idea that Rose would pull this dirty trick.

“Is there really nothing else you can remember?” Terezi asks Sollux.

He shakes his head. “Not really. I might have woken up at some point before waking up in the nurse’s office but it’s really foggy. And I only caught a few sounds, nothing more.”

“What sounds? Why didn’t you say anything about the sounds?”

“I dunno just some footsteps and scuffling sounds.” He thinks for a moment. “There may be a voice in the mix as well but I couldn’t make it out.”

“ _May be?”_

Sollux sneers. “Look I took severe brain damage, lost my sight and now you’re expecting me to be completely clear as fucking crystal about everything that happened? Fuck off.”

“Hey, asshole, we’re just trying to figure this out,” Karkat barks, “unless you want all of us to die.”

“It’s sounding more tempting by the second.”

“Sollux,” Kanaya says quietly, “please just…” She was going for exasperation but it must’ve sounded more like desperation because Sollux put on a surprisingly sympathetic expression. She can’t help but notice Terezi’s expression flickering for a second too.

“Okay, fine.” he says. “But there isn’t really much to tell. All I remember hearing is the footsteps, the voices and then the scuffling sounds.”

“That must be when I got there,” Rose guesses, “you were probably still unconscious when Feferi was killed.”

“Can you describe the footsteps? Was it only one set or two?”

Sollux makes a face. “I dunno about that. The footsteps were kinda echo-y so it was hard to tell. Loud too.”

A thought occurs to Kanaya. “Did you perchance hear high-heeled shoes?”

Rose noticeably stiffens.

Kanaya gestures down at her ankle-boots. “I was wearing these yesterday when I killed him.” She looks to Sollux, hope shining in her eyes. “Did you hear that?”

Sollux frowned in concentration. “I…I’m not sure if I did. Could you like take a step or something?”

She experimentally stood on one leg and tapped her other foot several times.

“Did the footsteps sound like that?” asks Terezi.

“I think,” Sollux says slowly, “that’s them.”

Kanaya’s heart leaps. “You see? Rose is innocent!” she almost shouts with conviction, “She did not even bring a single pair of high-heels to Hope’s Peak!”

Rose shakes her head, “No.” She looks around the room at everyone, “None of you can trust a testimony from him.”

“A witness is a witness,” Terezi says carefully, seeming to take great care over her words, leaning on her cane, unreadable, “and this one just so happened to hear the crime occur.”

Her composure breaks as her jaw clench and her voice sounds strained. “You cannot possibly _believe_ this. He tried to recall the sound of a single footstep in the midst of a struggle. Of course he would agree to any suggestion because he clearly does not remember! Not even to mention the _brain damage-_ ”

“You are asking me to disregard a witness testimony and I refuse. This shows a serious flaw in your own confession stating that you arrived there alone.”

“How the hell did you even get into law school with this kind of stupidity?!”

“Stupidity?” Terezi smirks. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Whatever do I mean?!” Rose is leaning over the panel of the stand, eyes violent and fists clenched. “I _mean_ that it is both a wonder and a travesty that someone who is able to stand behind a witness testimony in which he was barely even _conscious_ when the suspects were there was judged as being the Ultimate Lawyer Student! It’s _insanity._ ”

“And now you see why I was judged as being the Ultimate Lawyer Student.”

She raises an eyebrow, a smile tickling the corners of her mouth in exasperation. “…What?”

“’Suspects’,” Terezi says simply.

The half-smile wavers on Rose’s face but remains as her eyes widen in realisation of her mistake.

“You said ‘suspects’. You said multiple suspects were there which directly contradicts what you said earlier that you went there alone.”

Rose glances around the courtroom before her eyes fall on Kanaya. A pained expression passes over her face and she looks down. “Okay. Okay, I lied.” She admits.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Kanaya _was_ there, okay? But I didn’t lie about…about killing Eridan. It was me…” Her lower lip starts trembling. “I swear it was me. I did it.”

Silence greets her statement. Kanaya looks around and her breathing starts to slow. No one is believing her. Their doubt is evident on their faces. John, Jade and Dave stare at her in disbelief, almost looking betrayed.

Rose is saved.

And she knows it.

She tries to regain her posture, her unquestionable air. Her lip keeps trembling, her eyes remain too wide. She’s scared and she can’t hide it anymore. She looks like she wants something to say, something to get the ball back in her court but she knows there’s nothing.

“You have to believe me,” she says quietly.

Without a word Kanaya goes to her and envelops her in an embrace. She memorises it. Her dark clothes, the tickle of her soft feathery hair against her neck and the sweet scent of her perfume missed with the lingering flowery scent of shower gel. The faint impression of bone under her soft freckled skin as she presses her hand against her back. Her cleverness, her humour, her warmth, her light.

“It’s over,” says Kanaya.

Rose sighs and wraps her arms around her too. “Yeah,” she whispers and sniffs, “yes, I know.” She starts to cry.

Kanaya strokes her hair comfortingly. She will never grow old. She will never have children. She will never go to China. But that’s okay. She always kinda figured that they were overrated anyway. The only regret she has is that she only got to know Rose for a few days of her life out of all the years. She’s spent the last 12 hours preparing for this and she will accept it with open arms because it is thousands of times better than the alternative result.

It’s time for her to return to her mother. Time to go home.

“Wherever I am going,” Kanaya forces her voice to be steady, “I will miss you dearly.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“If you return as an ectoplasmic being, this better be the first place you visit.”

Kanaya laughed though it hurt and tears rolled down her cheeks. “I promise.”

“VOTING TIME!” she hears Monobear yell and she and Rose reach over to their respective panels and press a button before quickly returning to their embrace.

They kiss passionately and the rest of the world seems to fade. Kanaya can hardly hear Monobear as he announces her guilty. She can hardly feel the rattling of the floor as the great machines begin to whirr into life. She can hardly feel the fear or the sadness in Rose’s arms. Only warmth.

She only says one more thing before the chains wrap around her long elegant neck: “Good-bye, my darling.”


End file.
